familyvoicesmatter

Forum role	Member since	Last activity	Topics created	Replies created
Member	Jun 8, 2014 (10 years)	-	2	3

Forum role: Member
Member since: Jun 8, 2014 (10 years)
Last activity: -
Topics created: 2
Replies created: 3

Bio

I'm a Texas mom to two girls, wife to the sweetest German woman in the world, a lover of black coffee with chicory (that's the Creole in me) ...and hearts. Yes hearts. I find them everywhere I go, in nature, on the street. Love is all around us, we just need to be open to see it. I am a fierce advocate for children's mental health. I started my blog Family Voices Matter to highlight the work it takes, the lengths to which a family must go, for their children to receive amazing and respectful help with mental health challenges. At the beginning of 2016 I was appointed by the Executive Commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as the Parent Representative of the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee (BHAC). I also served as a Parent Representative on the Children and Youth Behavioral Health subcommittee to the BHAC, an advisory to both the Texas System of Care and Texas Children Recovering from Trauma (TCRFT) initiatives, which I had served as a Parent Representative from 2013-2017. As a part of the TCRFT initiative, I became an active member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network in 2013. I serve on numerous committees and workgroups, lending my experience and voice to local, state and national initiatives on children's mental health, as an expert on Trauma Informed Organizational Transformation and Parent and Family engagement and partnership. I was a Certified Family Partner, the family peer support provider role in Texas, as their state policy lead advocate from 2013-2017. I served Texas families in that role, co-founding the Texas Family Voice Network. I am now a candidate for Texas House of Representatives in district 47, which encompasses all of West Travis County and part of South Travis County. Looking forward to the Texas Blue Wave in 2018!! I have also been licensed as a Registered Nurse in Texas since 2002. I was taught that the will and desires of the patient are first and foremost paramount above what the professionals want them to do. We have lost sight of this concept in mental health. It must be restored, and I am poised to assist families in educating the mental health community, taking the blinders off, so we can all see the love that surrounds us in this world.